The invention relates to a device for mowing agricultural, stalk-like material and forming a windrow from the mown stalk-like material, which is to be deposited next to the device.
Such a device is used for mowing and working up grass or similar stalk-like material, which has been grown in meadows or fields, in one working process and for forming or placing together the largest possible windrows of stalk-like material for the succeeding equipment.
For example, a chopper, equipped with a pick-up drum as succeeding equipment, which is also used for chopping corn in order to prepare it for silage feed, is designed, in practice, for a large throughput of stalk-like material and, so that it is used utilized fully, requires corresponding by large portions of stalk-ike material that is large windrows. This can be achieved, for example, by placing together the stalk-like material of two working surfaces by changing the direction of travel (by 180xc2x0) of the mowing equipment or by placing together the stalk-like material of several devices, which are mounted on a mowing device.
From the British patent 2,088,684, a pulled device is known, which is equipped with running and supporting wheels and for which a cutter bar in the form of a drum cutter bar, a preparer with a rotating rotor and a transverse conveyer as suspended consecutively in an equipment frame. The rotor of the preparer transfers the prepared stalk-like material to the transverse conveyer, which comprises a spiral conveyer, which is mounted at both ends, is aligned at right angles to the working direction of the device and has a driving mechanism, which permits the spiral walks to rotate from the top towards the front and downward. The spiral conveyer is surrounded by a casing, the end of which at the ejection side is shortened, so that the inner body of the spiral conveyer is exposed in the shortened region of the casing up to the bearing support in a bracket. In the direction of the preparer, the casing is also open and, at the bottom, has a bottom part, which is directed tangentially to the spiral conveyer in the working direction of the device as a lower cover for the spiral conveyer. It is a disadvantage of this known embodiment of the device that the flow of stalk-like material, already accelerated during the preparation by the preparer, which may be equipped, for example, with a pronged rotor, is thrown onto the transverse conveyer and subsequently in a straight line against the casing ofthe spiral conveyer and against the spiral conveyer rotating inthe opposite direction to the flow of material and decelerated here to a value of xe2x80x9czeroxe2x80x9d. The worked-up harvested material from the spiral conveyer ofthe transverse conveyer must then be accelerated once again and conveyed conversely. Furthermore, from bearing to bearing, the inner body ofthe spiral conveyer, viewed from the cross section, continuously has the same construction so that the ejection region of the transverse conveyer is very constricted and therefore deceleration of the harvested material, accelerated once more by the spiral conveyer, also take place here. Such an interruption or impairment of the flow of the material leads to an irregular deposition of the windrow. All forces, directed against the flow of material must be rated as a loss and must be debited to the engine output of the pulling and/or driving machine.
It is therefore an object of the invention to improve the device of the type mentioned so that the acceleration, once imparted to the flow of stalk-like material by an equipment unit of the device, is retained approximately on the way to the deposition in the window on the ground of the field or meadow or decelerated as little as possible.
Due to the inventive device, an increase in the throughput by the transverse conveyor, associated with a wide ejection, is attained. Due to the hood-shaped expansion, atransporting space is formedbetweenthe casing andthe spiral conveyor, so that the stalk-like material, striking the spiral conveyor, need not be decelerated and instead can be conveyed further at ahigh throughput. The stalk-like material does not have to rotate completely about the axis of the spiral conveyor; it can, instead, be transported rapidly between the upper flanks of the screw and the hood-shaped expansion. By these means, the rate, at which the stalk-like material is conveyed further, is increased as a whole and, because of the high conveying speed, the throwing width at the ejection end is enlarged, so that such a device can also find use, for example, as a lateral component of mowing equipment and ejects the windrow in the central region of the mowing equipment, where it can be placed on a windrow previously formed by a front attachment of the mowing equipment. By these means, it is possible to form very large windrows, which are far apart.
The ejection is furthermore improved if the casing, in its rear region at the ejection end, has a recess and if the axle beam if the spiral conveyor tapers and, in particular, tapers conically towards its bearing end at the ejection end.
The conveying of stalk-like flow in the transverse conveyer is particularly good if a stripper and guiding bar is provided in the transition regions of the casing from the trough-like lower region to the hood-shaped upper region between the casing and outer periphery of the spiral conveyer. By these means, the proportion of stalk-like material, which does not revolve around the axis of the spiral conveyer and, instead, is transported at a high rate in the transporting space between the upper region of the spiral conveyer and the hood-shaped expansion, is increased clearly.
In particular, it is furthermore advantageous to have the preparer, for example, a pronged rotor, rotate in the same direction as the screw conveyer, the flow of stalk-like material being transferred overhead to the transverse conveyer. Because the upstream pronged rotor is rotating in the same direction, the spiral conveyer supports the conveying flow and imparts an additional acceleration to the flow of stalk-like material by means of flanks of the screw and as a result of the continuous pitch. In particular, the stripping and guiding bar contributes in the transition region of the casing from the lower rear to the upper hood-shaped region to the fact that the flow of stalk-like material can not be pulled under the spiral conveyer in the trough-like region. The stalk-like material is conveyed largely in the upper region between the hood and the axle beam of the spiral conveyer. In addition, the stripper and guiding bar provide wrapping protection for the spiral conveyer. Since the casing of the transverse conveyer and the housing of the preparer, especially of a pronged rotor, form a unit, the air flow, generated by the pronged conveyer, supports the conveying of the stalk-like material, so that the latter experiences a high overall acceleration, so that the stalk-like material is deposited significantly further then in the case of a conventional transverse conveyer next to the device or within the inner region of a lane of a mower.
A reduction in the cross section of the axle beam of the spiral conveyer, for example, in a construction as a cone, supports the conveying process of the flow of the stalk-like material in that more free space with fewer obstacles is created in the ejection region. Depending on the nature of the stalk-like material that is to be processed, a spiral walk on the conical part of the inner body in the ejection region can support a selective guidance on the flow of stalk-like material.
Further advantages and details arise out of an example of the object of the invention, which is described in the following and shown in the accompanying drawings.